If Factories offered a
dreamscape astral trip, the discordant and aurally dense Sunken Seas
strap you to the outside of the rocket for the full thrust of blast
off, white heat of the engines and bone-rattling surroundsound.

With
the intensity of the Bailterspace-to-Jakob lineage, this is part
post-rock and part prog-noir which pulls you in to the vortex and –
especially on the swirling intensity of Photographs of the Dead
– thrashes around like some creature in Alien, full of
malice and fury.

It can be utterly thrilling, yet they also offer a
spaciousness to let you breath (A Breed, the portentous and
slow joas).

Not everything works (the somewhat directionless
You Might Have Been and
The Hum, both with distant Joy
Division/Fall vocals) but Sunken Seas tour soon to back this
up.

You may consider that a warning, but it's an invitation into
cathartic noise, chest-thumping volume and an impressive ride into
darkness.

The debut album 151a two years
ago by Seattle's songwriter/violinist Kaoru Ishibashi was an
impressively upbeat-then-melancholy collection, equally confident in
dance pop as melodrama.
Here... > Read more

This debut solo album by the boffin behind The xx (and an influential and innovative remixer) joins a number of very intersting dots in British dance and ambient pop of the past few decades.... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Although he lived in the first half of the 20th century, the famous Japanese composer Michio Miyagi -- whose works are featured here -- actually belonged to a much older world.
He wrote in the... > Read more